Gosh some absolute beauties there. That Bamburgh castle sunrise must have been awesome to have watched. A really top set!

Regards

Thank you everyone for such encouraging comments. For myself I was most pleased, I think, with the Toucan, although it is a pretty heavy crop from the original image I took, as I cropped out the vague artefacts of what had been the netting of the enclosure. I'm a sucker for Owls too, and the snowy owls are just beautiful...

I'm still ploughing through my RAW files from the day, so next time I'll also try and post some in colour

Regards

I think these capture the theme pretty admirably! I think the one which has the most impact for me is the second one... I think this is because the subject includes aspects of 'foodstuffs' which gives an extra 'ick' factor. I like the angle on the 'Woman's Own' picture as well. A good set overall

Regards

Wow - I love to see old pics of London. Very cool. Thanks for sharing the link

Regards

That's a very cool set-up - thanks for showing it - it obviously delivers decent results too, but I have no idea what the beastie is

Regards

That's birds in Black and White rather than black and white birds in fact I was recently at Birdworld near Basingstoke and here are a few from the first crop I have processed. The weather was pretty poor and there's always a bit of a struggle to deal with netting and cages and the like, so I generally try and get a bit creative in PP, and use a few judicious crops. For those who don't like B/W I think there are colour versions of all of these (plus a growing number of others) on my flickr stream.

First up, a couple of pics of an African Grey Parrot:







Then, a sleepy looking snowy owl:




A blue-feeling Balinese Mynah Bird:




A reflective Toucan:




A crusty-looking Hornbill:




A rather handsome fellow but I am not sure what - seems to be pondering what lies beyond the wire




and finally, a like-minded Amazon




I hope you like these. Any C&C welcome. Birdworld is a very neat place and I took a load of pictures; still having a few gigabytes to process... maybe I'll post some more in a few days These were all taken with the K5 and DA* 300, which was a good combo for these circumstances, I thought; although for some of the bigger birds it got in just a bit too close so I later switched to the 200mm little brother...

Regards

It's quite a spec - small, light, sturdy, affordable. I reckon it would be worth you having a look at a Velbon Luxi. I took one of these with me on holiday this year (specifically a Velbon Luxi L) and it was great! noticeably (much) smaller and lighter than my velbon sherpa, and with a good pan and tilt head with spirit levels built in. I found it sturdy enough although I wouldn't trust it at full extension with a monster lens. I have used it no problem with my sigma 70-200, which is a pretty chunky lens. It extends as high as my velbon sherpa although is not so solid, but nonetheless worked. I would recommend having a look at one and trying it out though as I can imagine it won't be for everyone. I got mine from Microglobe who were clearing out various thngs, for about £40, although full priced they should be well under a hundred pounds.

Good alternatives are as John suggests above. I find a Gorillapod is also a decent option with a lightweight lens and a remote release.

Regards

A cracking set - very nicely executed all of them. I especially like the grumpy looking pigeon and the Blue Tit with a wayward feather, but all are excellent.

Regards

Nice one Danny - well done indeed. A very cool shot!

Regards

I use a strap more or less identical to the one posted by GaryJohn, but made by Crumpler. It is fantastically comfortable compared to the regular Pentax strap